Her strategists tell Time they are urging her to make her intentions clear by next spring—by forming an exploratory committee, for instance—to lock up fund-raising and political talent. Those close enough to know say that she is genuinely undecided but that Bill is not disguising his eagerness to see her make a bid for his old job. "He thinks that she should run, and he's going to do everything possible to help her," says Texas insurance mogul and philanthropist Bernard Rapoport, a longtime Clinton friend and backer.

...

Even when Bill doesn't get in her way, Hillary has trouble pulling off what came so naturally to him. "I wish she hadn't come out against flag burning," says her supporter and funder Rapoport. "The worst mistake she can make is to move to the right. She's going to lose a lot of the enthusiasm of the people who can get her elected." But others point out that by supporting a statute banning flag burning, she helped defeat a more drastic constitutional amendment that would have done the same thing—very much like what her husband did in 1995 when he produced a balanced budget, horrifying the left with 25% cuts in domestic spending. That helped take the political momentum out of a balanced-budget constitutional amendment. "Do you pretend [an issue] doesn't exist, or do you find a way to beat it?" asks former Clinton White House domestic-policy director Bruce Reed. "The Clintons have always found a way to beat it."

I'm mildly puzzled by the idea that Hillary needs to send a signal by spring 2007. She can wait much longer than any other Democrat in the race: the money will still be there, the consultants will still be there, the endorsements will still be there, etc.

In fact, until Hillary says she isn't running, people will assume that she is. So if I were Hillary's strategists, I'd keep her powder dry as long as possible.

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According to The New York Times, former UT System Regents Chairman BernardRappoport hired Webster Hubbell for a joint venture with the Riady family inIndonesia during the brief time before Hubbell's federal imprisonment. Thisshocker should end naive beliefs that the cozy and profitable relationshipsbetween the individuals who ran this system and Indonesian interests wasabove-board.

Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr is investigating these and otherenormous payments, totaling $400,000, to determine if they were "hushmoney" related in any way to Hubbell's decision to not cooperate withfederal investigators. Appearances of impropriety include frequent visitsto Hubbell in prison by the Clintons' close personal friends, to remind himthe Clintons still "cared."

The Lippo Group, an Indonesian conglomerate run by the Riadys, helpedintroduce since-disgraced fund-raiser John Huang to the Clintonadministration, which later endorsed Rappoport's $2 billion Chinesereal-estate project. Rappoport's public service to Texas served his privateinterests well. Clinton has claimed ignorance of these "indefensible"payments from his good friends and his best friend.

We can no longer deny the coinciding of Rappoport's sudden interest inhiring Hubbell as his lawyer, and the large consulting compensation paid toUT System Chancellor William Cunningham by Jim Bob Moffett andFreeport-McMoRan -- a large and controversial corporate presence inIndonesia.

We now expect the Justice Department's investigation to shift south, tothe Democratic Leadership Council. This group was co-founded by Sen. JohnBreaux of Louisiana, who helped Moffett intimidate our faculty last year.This cozy relationship suggests our system administration lacks integrity.

This sad possibility is supported by other events. Last year, we lost a"whistle-blower" lawsuit in which a plaintiff alleged the Universitydeliberately undercollected royalties from oil and gas producers withties to administrators.

Now there are allegations of administrators being forced to contributeto the DNC. [APFN: Cause of Ron Browns death)

Students, faculty and staff are completely unaware of the alleged sleazymachinations. Perhaps our traditional reliance on the Democratic Party'ssupport of higher education has left us vulnerable to its recentindiscretions.

Perhaps UT President Robert Berdahl had some of these considerationin mind when he accepted the chancellorship at Cal-Berkeley. Berdahlis a man of principle, he may have felt totally out of place withinthe highest levels of the UT System.